The art offers a variety of hockey sticks. Typically, hockey sticks comprise a shaft and a blade. The cross section of the shaft is traditionally rectangular so as to prevent undesired rotation of the shaft in the hands of a player. The cross-sectional dimensions of the hockey stick shaft are usually fixed within a narrow range by the requirement that the player must have a good grip on the shaft.
It is a common practice to make the shaft with a constant rectangular geometry from a first extremity thereof to a second extremity thereof, with a height and a width yielding an ergonomic perimeter standardly comprised between 90 and 95 mm. The rectangular shape of the shaft allows assembling either a left or a right blade, and, as mentioned hereinabove, allows a resistance to a rotation of the stick in the hands of the player, in direct relation to a pressure exerted by the hand of the player.
The shear gripping force of the hands allows the player to control the stick in a number of shots, such as the slap shop, the snap shot and the wrist shop. Such shots require a controlled rotation of the stick, and are therefore dependent on the quality of grip of the gloved hand on the stick. The wrist shop for example requires a maximum grip on the shaft for an enhanced precision. The snap shot is performed very rapidly and also requires a perfect control of the grip on the shaft of the stick through a movement of the wrists in order to generate energy of speed and a satisfactory precision. The slap shot requires the stick to be rigid, both in flexion and in torsion.
It has been shown that, when performing a slap shot, first energy is built up in the stick during a contact between the blade and the ice or the ground, before the blade hits the puck, due to a flexion of the shaft. Then the energy is released and transferred to the puck upon contacting the blade. The puck in turn, when contacting the blade, creates a torsion of the shaft, which resistance to deformation in torsion must be high in order to propel the puck at a high speed.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,267,697 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,967,913 to Sulenta describe a hockey stick with a shaft having at least a portion with a triangular cross section in an attempt to yield an adjustable grip. Canadian patent number 2,106,178 to Scherz teaches a hockey stick shaft with a handle part having at least a bottom surface thereof that is V-shaped to provide a better grip. However, it is found that although such cross sections indeed yield a better grip on the shaft by a naked hand, it is not optimized for a grip with a gloved hand at a constant gripping force.
Therefore, in spite of previous efforts, there seems to be some room for improvement in the art for a new hockey stick shaft combining an optimized grip and a high rigidity in flexion and in torsion.